1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, a method of creating electronic document data, and a computer-readable medium that records an electronic document data creation program, and particularly relates to an image forming apparatus, a method of creating electronic document data, and a computer-readable medium that records an electronic document data creation program, all of which create data in an electronic document format from document image data, to which data in an electronic format an annotation for browsing can be written.
2. Description of the Related Art
There conventionally exists an image forming apparatus provided with a scanner that reads an image of a source document, and creates an electronic document in a Portable Document Format (PDF), for example, from image data obtained by scanning a paper-medium source document. An example of such an image forming apparatus is a Multi Function Peripheral (MFP).
The above-described electronic document can be browsed with the use of an application corresponding thereto. If the electronic document is widely-used PDF data, it can be browsed with the use of Acrobat Reader or a Web browser, which serves as an application that operates in a personal computer (PC), a viewer that operates in a mobile telephone, a viewer that operates in electronic paper, or the like.
When a paper-medium source document is browsed, it is common that comments, markers, and others are additionally written thereto by handwriting. Such additionally-handwritten information can reduce time and effort to search for a necessary section in the case of subsequent browsing. Furthermore, such information can indicate a section one wishes other persons to browse, and hence is often useful as well when other persons browse the same source document.
There conventionally exists an image forming apparatus that reads handwritten information such as a marker on a paper-medium source document. Specifically, examples thereof include an image forming apparatus capable of reading an additionally-handwritten portion such as a marker on a source document in accordance with an instruction by utilizing an Optical Character Reader (OCR) function, an image forming apparatus that executes specific image processing on the relevant portion in accordance with an instruction, and other apparatuses. In other words, each of the conventional image forming apparatuses executes processing on an additionally-written portion in accordance with an instruction.
For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 06-162109 (hereinafter referred to as Document 1) discloses an electronic filing system capable of designating a keyword for search with the use of a marker.
However, when an electronic document produced from image data obtained by scanning a paper-medium source document is browsed, each of the above-described conventional image forming apparatuses such as the system disclosed in Document 1 fails to support browsing of an additionally-handwritten portion such as a marker on the source document. Accordingly, there arises a problem of not being able to achieve particularly high browsing capability in the additionally-handwritten portion such as a marker on the source document.